A Crest Returns
by Ssb3Goku
Summary: Ash never questioned what gave Aura Guardians the ability to use aura while other did without, a question he asked in passing. He just accepted the gift the way and didn't question it much, why bother worrying about the why? That was until a mission gone wrong sends him somewhere that might shed some light on that origin, and plunge him into a war he didn't want to be in.
1. This ain't Kanto

**Welp, time for a new (maybe weir story by me using everyone's favourite raven haired trainer.**

**Just so you people know this Ash isn't the usual anime Ash. He's based more on my other story 'Pokemon Z'(shameless plug-in I know) so if you wanna know more about his personality read that but you don't have to.**

**So Ash here will be seventeen and will have aura abilities with some martial arts skills. So he won't be at a complete disadvantage to other characters. Anyway here comes the warning!**

**Fire Emblem belongs to Intelligent systems and Pokémon belongs to Gamefreak. I own and profit nothing from this!**

**-Chapter Starts-**

"Here we are…" Ash asked out loud, looking over a large ruins from a hilltop, the light of the full moon illuminating the area allowing him to easily taken in the sight. The area was littered with ancient buildings of unknown make, not even sharing any semblance to ancient Kanto architecture. "Never seen anything like this before, who built this place?" the teen asked confused, he's been around the world and seen many things but this place just didn't feel like it belong.

The ruins were located ten miles west of Pallet town by some archeologists from Viridian city only a few months ago. Before it was only just the roof of a building but soon with enough manpower, and pokemon labour, they dug up an entire settlement with the roof first discovered actually belonging to a very large temple. The temple was the centerpiece of the settlement and was its largest structure, meaning it was probably the most important location.

Usually Ash wouldn't care about such a place, sure it was interesting but he preferred battling or martial arts to dusty old buildings and ancient text. However, he was ordered to come here by a another party, the Aura Guardians.

Ash only in the past few years learned about his aura and was only contacted by the Guardians in the last year. The group invited him into their ranks to help keep balance between humans and pokemon, keeping the natural balance between the two to keep Arceus pleased. They trained him in the basics of utilizing his aura, being able to manifest aura spheres and enhancing his body far beyond normal human limits. In exchange for the training, he became a sorta of a agent for them, keeping the group informed on any trouble and doing missions for them.

One such mission was one he was currently doing, infiltrate the dig to investigate the temple. The Guardians weren't usually into ruins themselves but possibly these ruins might have connections to the guardians, maybe even aura use by humans itself. Because of that, they needed to send someone in to check and confirm any possible connections. Ash was just the closest guardian nearby to do this, given the ruins close proximity to his hometown and the fact he was on vacation at home.

"Seems they finally dug up the entrance to the temple, time to go in," Ash said out loud, petting his canine companion on her head getting an annoyed grunt at the action. "Sorry but you'll have to get your beauty sleep later lycanroc," he told his partner with a sheepish grin, honestly he'd rather fall asleep and curl up with her until the afternoon. However, this was the best time to enter the temple.

Lycanroc whimpered a bit more, hoping to sway her trainer's opinion, but noticing the tactic wasn't working, sighed and stood up, stretching her powerful legs as she did. Once she finished her stretches, she looked up at her partner and nodded before jumping down the hill they were on, landing right beside a small house looking ruin.

As forward as ever, Ash thought snorting at the action, well to be fair he wasn't exactly a subtle person either. He followed in her suit and leaped off their vantage point, holding his hat with one hand to stop it from being blown off. As the ground neared, a thin layer of aura formed around his feet, not only strengthening his legs but providing an additional layer of protection. He slammed into the ground with a heavy thud, kicking up dust at the force and sending a shock though his body.

Legs not broken and only the briefest pang of pain. Ash thought to himself pleased at the results, his drop was at least six stories but he was perfectly fine outside of a tiny bit of numbness in his legs. After the numbness quickly faded, he walked up to the wall of the building and pressed himself against it, sliding against it until he was at the corner. He quickly popped his head around the corner to make sure the coast was clear, hopefully their landing didn't garner unwanted attention.

The ancient paved streets of the settlements were vacant, only a few left behind pickaxes and archeology tools being the only out of place items. With no sign of people around, the duo came around the corner and slowly made their way down the street headed towards the temple in the middle of the settlement.

The walk was a slow one, the two had to avoid getting discovered by security, however the lights produced by their flashlights gave them good warning on their position. Stealth was never Ash's strong suits, not that he couldn't hide well but because he lacked the patience for it. He preferred taking things on head on, sneaking around the problem just wasn't his style. But sadly, he had to tolerate the slow approach or face getting caught and sent home to his mother. Oh boy would he get an ear full from her if that happened!

With the slow progress, it gave Ash the time to let his thought wander about this place. He was curious why this place was so different from nearly anything else built around, the place had no architectural similarities to ancient Kanto buildings or heck buildings from anywhere else in the world. Where they some bizarre culture that decided to be different? Also what connections could they have to aura and the Guardians? The Guardians themselves believe there is some relation between them.

Ash suddenly stopped suddenly, the steps leading up to the temple right in front of him, the steps went up roughly four stories. Made sense why they discovered it first since the other buildings were lucky if they reached a second story. "Well let's head up," he told his partner taking the first step on the stone step, soon followed by a few more as he headed up. His canine companion following behind him, her long claws making a light clicking sound with each step.

The two made it up the steps, no sounds shared between them other than their footsteps. Just as they were about to reach the top, Ash peaked his head over the edge to make sure no security was around guarding the entrance. Noticing the coast was clear, they took their final steps up the stairs and now stood in front of the ancient temple.

_Woah… quite ornate ain't it?_ Ash thought whistling at the sight in front of him. Near the front of the entrance to the temple was several well carved statues, their imagine ruined due to breaking in certain areas. Most of the statues depicted soldiers with a variety of weaponry, swords, maces, spears, and axes to name a few which he could see. The most impressive statue was ironically the only one left relatively intact, missing a few pieces here and there plus some serious cracks but it was still standing unlike the others who couldn't stand the test of time.

The statue was made of marble and had intricate gold carvings on it, he didn't understand if the carvings had deeper meaning or were just a stylized design. Interestingly, this statue held no weapons like the others, instead in a outstretched hand it held a sphere, purely blue and glowed by some unknown method… the sight was oddly familiar…

Ash extended his hand, just like the statue, and formed an aura sphere in his hand, the orb glowing a similar blue glow like the sphere in the statues hand. "Well if this doesn't connect this place to the aura guardians I don't know what will…" this statue was obviously meant to represent a guardian, were the other less ornate statues also guardians or were they followers? Was the guardian their leader?

Well he wasn't gonna get the answers to his questions looking at this thing. The teen slowly backed up from the statue before dropping his backpack onto the floor, opening it up and searching through to find something. He pulled out a small camera from his bag and pointed at the statue, making sure the entire statue was in frame before taking a picture. He clicked the button on his camera and bright flash temporarily illuminated the statue.

"Well I don't think we need anymore evidence than that…" Ash told his partner looking at the saved picture, the picture clear and should be enough to prove the connection. Lycanroc simply huffed in reply as he put away the camera and strapped the backpack onto himself once more. Just as he was about to turn around to leave, the entrance of the ruin caught his eyes.

Originally he planned enter the temple but this statue made such a thing unnecessary now. Despite that fact, he was curious about what was inside, the statue was simply an appetizer to a greater tale hidden inside the temple. He started to walk forward towards the entrance, walking over pieces of statues and other derby, but was stopped by something pulling at his jeans.

He looked down to Lycanroc who had a piece of jeans in her mouth, trying to pull him away from the temple without ripping his pants entire. Ash bent down onto his knees and pet her lush mane, getting a whine out of her. "I won't be long in there girl, just gonna take a few more pics and I'll be out of there," he reassured his oldest companion, the canine tentatively letting go and licking his cheek, still whimpering softly.

With his companion soothed for the moment, he kept walking towards the entrance but stopped just short of it, the eerie darkness of the temple was quite foreboding. Ash breathed in to calm himself before grabbing a flashlight and pointing towards the darkness, turning it on and illuminating the space right in front of him. With his path now lit, he took his first steps into derelict temple.

The first ten minutes of his walk was… uneventful. There wasn't really anything around to catch his interest. No ancient writing on the walls or maybe some strange artifacts from Arceus, just broken clay pots and some other mundane everyday items. It seemed the first floor was the living quarters, he found a room filled with rusted and broken cookware which was most likely a kitchen and a few rooms filled with single beds, broken and rotten due to millennium of no maintenance. He decided to find the stairs and get to the next floor, just looking at the pots and pans got his stomach rumbling for chow.

The second floor was far more interesting, or at least it would be. He found endless eroded bookcases and giant piles of dust on the floor, obviously this was some form library or record keeping area. Time turned all the countless books and pages to the dust, probably would have been a great find for the eggheads. Not so much for Ash, he barely passed English so ancient text was definitely out of his league. After roaming the dust pile which was the second floor, coughing up a storm and breathing in thousand year old dust, he found another flight of stairs leading further down.

Reaching the third floor, Ash breathed in the fresh air, coughing up what dust built up in his lungs. "Ain't impressing me temple…" the seventeen year old moaned out, waving his flashlight around to get his bearings. After taking a few minutes to recover from his coughing fit, he walked down the hallway in front of him. Connected to the hallway were several rooms, the wooden doors used for privacy destroyed by time. Strangely, the third floor also seemed like a living quarters, eroded bed frames and rusted cookware was abundant here as well.

However something caught Ash's eye, he saw something shine back his flashlight's light back at him. He walked towards one of the rooms near the end of the hallway before stopping just in front of it, bending down and grabbing the item which caught his eye. "A helmet?" the raven haired boy asked out loud, he was able to identify the object now that he was close. The thing was extremely rusty and he was confident that it would break if he tossed it, still it was cool looking.

He flashed his light into the room the helmet laid in front of, the sight inside caused his mouth to gap open and to drop the helmet onto the floor, the rusty object easily breaking into pieces. The room was littered with armor and weapons, all rusted and decrepit but still the vast amount of weapons obviously made this level no mere living quarters. It was probably where the guards stayed but…

Why would they be here instead of near the top to better protect the entrance… Ash wasn't a genius but this didn't seem right. He continued down the hallway, taking a left turn but suddenly stopped. In front of the teen was a large stone door with gold engravings and at the center of the door was sphere, engraved in gold with some black crystal underneath it. He didn't see any way of opening the door, he even tried pushing it and trying to feel a pressure plate to open it but nothing. The movies made these things look way easier.

Ash sighed and was about ready to end his expedition but he focused on the sphere in the middle. The sphere kind of reminding him of the sphere the ornate statue had, it just wasn't glowing blue like the one outside. If the guy outside is suppose to be a guardian, maybe the key to opening the gate is aura? That made sense, if this place was connected to them than a locked door opened only by aura would be great security.

Ash placed his hand on the sphere and started to focus his aura into the palm of his hand. At first, nothing happened. Maybe he was wrong or the thing was broken due to time. However, he suddenly felt the aura he focus into his hand begin to get sucked out of him, the black crystal started to glow a faint blue and grew in intensity as more of his aura entered it. He tried to pry himself away from the sphere but for some reason, the sphere pulled his hand and he couldn't remove it.

Suddenly, the pull it had disappeared and the teen stumbled back a few steps, the sphere was glowing as intense as the one outside. A slit appeared in the middle of the door and slowly the two slabs of stone slid into the wall, revealing what was behind them. "More stairs…" Ash mumbled seeing just another dark staircase, he was expecting more for that effort. He shrugged his shoulders and made his way down the steps to the next floor, hopefully the lower levels are more interesting than the upper ones.

Ash walked down the dark stairway but stopped, he saw a light source at the bottom but what was making it? Gulping in anticipation, he finally reached the bottom floor and his breath was taken away from him. This floor beat all the others with ease!

The walls of the room was covered in artwork, carvings of men fighting creatures he never seen before though they were in the shape of canines, birds, and some form of large reptiles. However two figures stood out to him, one in front of leading the troops was large and muscular man wielding a sword that didn't know if it wanted to be one or be a whip, since the weapon seemed to be some combination of both. The near the hilt of the blade was some strange sigil, almost looked like the head of a horned creature, what could the symbol mean? It was obvious he was leading these forces.

The other odd one out was a man far to the rear, standing a top stone walls with a spear in one hand and another blue gem in the other, obviously meant to represent aura. The spear had a strange sigil in it too, but this one was a circle with six points jutting out of it, it slightly reminded of the ring that surrounded Arceus. Behind the stonewall he stood upon were people but unlike the others they seemed to unarmed and seemed mostly composed of woman and children. It seemed this figure was a guardian of some sort to him, protecting those who couldn't fight back from the monsters while the one with the sword went out with those who could fight to fight back against them, a sword and shield one might say.

Ash pulled out his camera and took a few more pictures, two of the wall and one of the strange lighting system, which seemed to be torches of some kind but not of traditional fuel but the crystal used elsewhere, before continuing on his expedition. He would find another flight of stairs but near it he found another set of artwork carved into the wall, this was two human armies heading out to meet each other, one lead from the burly man from before but the other lead by a woman with very wiggly looking sword. The guardian from before was there but like before he was near the back, however unlike before he was protecting a wall but entering some structure with his head low, seemingly almost mournful about what was happening behind him. What had happen, weren't the two men friends? Why was he abandoning him in this fight and who was this woman fighting what seemed to be a hero from what he could tell from the earlier wall?

The more he explored the place the more things just got confusing, what were those creatures that those humans from earlier were fighting? They certainly weren't pokemon, he never seen anything like them and he never heard of some Pokémon-Human war in Kanto before. Also those sigils he saw before, he actually noticed the symbol of the guardian was actually quite numerous in this temple. So that meant he built this place? Did that mean he was the leading Aura Guardian here? Ash shook his head at those thoughts, he still had one more flight of stairs to go down it seemed, which was odd. He recalled the temple only had four stories, seems the temple had a basement or subterranean floors below the surface structure.

Heading down the steps, he would reach the bottom of them in a minute. Once he reached the bottom, it was just a hallway. No side doors or connecting hallway, just one hallway no bigger than the entrance he came from and seemed to go on for awhile, the teen unable to see where the hallway ended or what was the end of it. Ash started to make his way down the hallway, each footstep echoing across the long tunnel. The walls had no art to admire and only the eerie blue lights kept him company, it made the teen feel truly alone and isolated from the world, just his thoughts to keep him distracted as his legs automatically kept moving forward.

Ash didn't know how long he walked, maybe ten minutes but it seemed longer than that, he left his watch and pokédex at home meaning he lost track of the passage of time. He thought this hallway would never end, he was going mad seeing the same grey walls for so long, but just when he started to think of going back the way he came, he saw something in the distance

A door! Just like the ones before with the aura lock, he wasn't just mindlessly wandering around for no reason! Ash rushed up to the door and reached it in a single minute, nearly running into it in his excitement. He placed his hand on the sphere and transferred his aura into until it glowed a bright blue, the door sliding into the wall shortly after revealing a dark room, none of the earlier lights present.

Ash flashed his light inside and noticed a single orb on a golden pedestal in the middle of the room and the walls had weird writing on the walls. What the walls were trying to say the teen couldn't make heads or tails of. He pointed the flashlight at the floor catching the glimpse of carvings on them, not words like on the wall. The carvings all lead to the pedestal, probably representing it as important. Outside of that, the room was mostly featureless, no furniture or even dust, its in perfect condition.

The teen walked inside the room and walked up to the only item he could interact with, the orb on the pedestal. He was confused by its purpose, the other ones were lights or lock, this one just seemed out of the place to him. _Nothing ventured nothing gained… _Ash thought walking up to the pedestal, lifting his hand and hovering over the sphere, mentally debating if he really should do this. Overcoming his fear of the unknown, he rested his hand on the sphere than started to pump aura into it.

Like earlier, the orb started to glow but it was quite the slow windup and didn't reach it's full brightness. Suddenly, the markings on the floor started to glow a bright blue, the walls soon following with them. Ash heard loud thud behind him and turned his head to the exit, the door slid back into place and he just noticed strange markings on the door as well matching the wall. Raven haired teen tried desperately to pry himself away from the device, grasping his wrist with his free to try and add more force, dropping his flashlight in the process. Even with these efforts, the sphere kept him glued to it just as the room started to shake violently and the lights grew brighter. So bright he had to close his eyes or be blinded!

Suddenly, everything just stopped. The shaking just ceased and Ash slowly opened his eyes, noticing the room was just entirely dark. He pulled his hand away from the sphere and stumbled back, falling onto the floor on his side. After catching his breath, he got onto his hands and knees, moving his hands across the floor to try and find his flashlight which turned off when it fell. He found in a few seconds and quickly turned on, illuminating the pitch black room. The teen got back onto his feet and scanned the area with the flashlight, trying to find out what happen.

Ash noticed he was still in the same room… but also not. The general lay out was the same but the room was quite damaged. The walls and flooring seemed to have serious cracking, compared to the near pristine room he was in. The door blocking his exit before was broken entirely, the orb used as the lock just laying in some rubble. The most noticeable difference was the orb on the pedestal, it had deep crack in it, nearly splitting it in half.

Ash was confused by this, did he do this when he activated the orb? The room did shake violently. He walked up to the pedestal and tried to transfer aura into it. Nothing, his aura wasn't even being absorbed by the crystal, obviously the crack left it inert and useless. "Well nothing can be done now…" whatever happened didn't matter, best get out of here, he didn't know what effects he caused. He quickly ran out of the room and into the hallway, the less time he spent here now the better. Unbeknownst to him, his action would not go unnoticed.

_-Remire Village-_

Jeralt looked up through the window of the room he and his child shared at the local inn that the innkeeper generously offered him and his mercenary group to stay for the night, though he probably made up for the free rooms for all the ale he sold to the thirsty mercenaries. Something caught the eye of the aging mercenary though, a blue pillar of sort suddenly shot through the forest line and into the heavens, parting any cloud that dare stand in it's way, clearing up the cloudy night sky and revealing the moon hidden by them

"What in the world?" Jeralt asked to himself outloud, he never saw anything like this in all his days as mercenary or has a captain of the knight of Seiros. Was this the doing of some kind of heroes relic? Though he never heard of one parting the clouds in his life or creating a blue pillar of light. As quickly as the light came, it vanished only leaving behind the hole it created in the sky. "I'm getting too old for this…" the mercenary said exhausted, it seemed whatever made that light was somewhat close by, however it was too late in the night to go exploring for it and he'd rather not get roped in with it. Especially if it had anything to do with the church and her…

Looking away from the window he looked down at his sleeping child, noticing them turning frequently and beads of sweat running down there face. _Another restless sleep uh, kid? Is it the battle or that young girl again?_ Jeralt thought to himself, it was always the same dream with his child in recent weeks and it was concerning. Another reason he didn't want to go searching for the source of the light, he already had the mystery of his only child, he didn't need to add another one on top of it.

_-Woods near Remire Village-_

"Claude I would advise against this action, leaving behind the other to explore… whatever created that light isn't wise." A blonde haired teen wearing a blue cloak and armor warned his companion, not desiring to get in trouble over his fellow house leader curious desire. "You know what they say about about 'curiosity and the cat', correct? Unlike them you don't have nine lives."

"But I'm also much clever than any cat, you don't need nine lives when you can scheme like me." The tanned teen known as Claude shot back, flashing the blonde one of his grins. "Plus I didn't invite you join me if I recall, you merely followed Dimitri. If your so worried than head back with our imperial princess, you'll just ruin the whole operation." The heir to house Reigan told them, when it came to stealth and schemes he ran supreme.

"If we left you to your own devices Claude, we'd have troubling bearing down on us. I'd rather know what I'm dealing with than just waiting for you to run back to us with host of enemies on your rear." The silver haired teen, Edelgard, chastised her alliance counterpart. "Though I must admit I'm also curious what caused the light, it seemed nearby and parted the very sky itself. It must be quite powerful…" the future emperor mumbled the last part to herself, she needed to know what this abnormality was and how it could change her plans for the near future. An unknown variable could tip the scale of events against her if not unaccounted for…

"Boss are you sure about this, I say we get outta here after that light show!" An unknown figure warned, the man was clearly shaken by just what happened and thought it a warning for what they were about to do.

"_Shut your damn mouth you idiot!_" A much larger man hissed into the ear of his compatriot, grasping the man's head and giving it a rough squeeze, getting a whine of pain from the smaller man. "_We're here to off has many noble brats has we can, a thousand gold per head! I'm not gonna let some dumb lights scare us away from a big score! Especially when a group of these brats just so happen to wonder off on there own, now grab your weapon and let's kill him before people notice them gone!_" The large man ordered picking up his axe, the others in his little group grabbing there own.

_-Back at the Temple-_

Ash would make his way out of the room, the hallway leading back to the stairs seemed relatively the same, though he noticed some cracking her and there on the walls, seems the walls were under greater pressure than before. After a long walk he would return the ladder and climb up the stairs, heading up to the next floor. However he noticed somethings weren't the same as he first came through, noticeably was it was far more damaged than when he entered, both unintentionally and intentionally.

On the fourth floor with the wall art he noticed the face of the man with the whip sword was damaged beyond recognition, has if hiding the face of the man was the intent. Several of the walls were damaged and caves in, he also noticed dirt pouring in from the outside. This floor was certainly more damaged than he entered, was this doing? He doubted the archaeologists will be pleased by that if it was the case.

Ash kept heading towards the surface, each floor mimicking the ones he passed just in a more ruined state than when he passed originally. However, he actually found what seemed like a bathing room with fresh clean water in the third level which wasn't there before, only confusing the teen further. Once he reached the top floor and headed towards the exit, he noticed something off around the entrance.

A large section of the entrance was destoryed, has if someone or a large group of someone broke down a section of the wall to gain entry, reinforced by the aura locked stone door on the floor. The more horrific sight was the large amounts of bodies scattered around, though it seemed whatever battle took place here was long ago, only the remains of rusted arms and armor remained, even the bones of the combatants turned to dust. "What happened here..?" Ash asked himself seriously confused, the entrance was certainly not how he remembered it and the sight of the bodies made him unease. The teen would head to the now enlarged exit, doing his best to not ruin the rusted armors and weapons scattered around.

Heading out, he noticed something off. "Where's the dig site?" Ash asked himself, noticing only large tracts of forest around him. He had a strange feeling he wasn't in Kanto anymore.

**-Chapter Ends-**

**Welp I hope you enjoy the first chapter of my brand new story! Also I didn't mention Byleth's sex because I'm still not sure about it. Leave any suggestions for what house he should join or any other helpful comments.**


	2. A Chance Meeting with Royalty

**Welp here's chapter two of my story, I've loved the positive reception to my story but before we begin, I want to explain a few things.**

**First, they'll be no Pokemon, for awhile at least. The reason being it gives Ash has too much of a protective barrier for him, let's admit anime pokémon would be a bit too powerful for most enemies in three houses. They can take and dish out things that would kill a human several times over, I want Ash to be in the action and dealing with the threat actively. Having him in the background just directing his Pokemon from the back would just be like a typical pokemon fanfic.**

**Second, I have two routes I'm taking Ash down, he'll either be joining a house or becoming an apprentice of the Knights of Seiros like Cyril is with Shamir, probably to Catherine. A few suggested started his own house but that doesn't really make sense since houses consistent of people from their respective homeland, since he's literally the only person from another realm of existence making a house just for him doesn't make sense. Rhea is likely just to either allow him to join a house he wants freely or place him under one of her trusted knights.**

**I hope these decisions don't disappoint anyone, I just feel this is best for this story. But anyway, time to put the warning!**

**Fire Emblem belongs to Intelligent systems and Pokémon belongs to Gamefreak. I own and profit nothing from this!**

**-Chapter Starts-**

_What should I do now?_Ash thought to himself, that one question plaguing him for past few minutes since arriving to… wherever here was, he still hasn't figured out where 'here' is actually at. He didn't have many options honestly, sticking to the temple and just hoping someone to come help him is unlikely, even than since the chamber was broken on his end they'll just be trapped here with him. "The only real option is treking it through the woods and hoping to find civilization…" the raven haired teen mumbled to himself, that option had its own fair share of risks has well but at the very least with that he'd feel like he would be making progress towards… something! Better than sitting on his rear around this pile of rubble, he was much more proactive than reactive anyway.

Looking around to find something he could use to tell his position, the only noticeable landmark was a series of mountains to the north, not exactly an indicator of civilians that and since he didn't know his surroundings it was a pointless landmark to know where he is. "South I guess…" Ash mumbled to himself, the south gets warmer the further you go down, right? Probably people living where its warmer, at least in his mind. He wasn't exactly an expert on human settlement pattern, he just followed the map wherever he needed to go and even than he usually took detours and 'questionable' short cuts by some. How was he suppose to know of a massive ravine that split a forest in half?!

With his destination -more like a general direction- set he started a long trek through the dark and foreboding forest. The walk was uneventful outside of the occasional tripping on roots or fallen branches, it was honestly quite boring to the young man. When he had travelled he always had companions with him, be it pokémon or humans, the sound of chatter and laughter was lighten up the usually lonely dirt roads. Unfortunately he had no pokémon with him, he felt it unnecessary to bring them along, not having intentions of fighting the scientist or security staff and left Lycanroc back at the entrance of the temple, alone…

Just the mere thought broke his heart, the two were very close being partners for so long and he could hardly think of life without her, even for a short amount of time. But he needed to be realistic, it was better that he moved forward and try to find another one of those temples to get back, there just had to be more! That guy with the sigil built them back home and wherever here was, so he must have built more. Ash knew the possibility of just two was there, but he always looked on the positive side of things, especially in trying times like this.

However he was knocked out of his thoughts by… yelling? It sounded like someone was yelling at somebody else, the voice rough and irritated by something. _The yelling is coming from… over __there!_ Ash though looking to his right, he was sure that's the direction he heard the yelling come from, he was ecstatic! Sure someone yelling wasn't usually a good sign, but that meant somebody was close by to where he was, someone who can tell him where he was and possibly the nearest settlement! Maybe they'll have a pokémon center he can get some sleep and maybe some snacks, it was pretty late when he left the house and he could do with a late night snack before hitting the hay.

The raven haired teen rushed through the forest at an impressive pace, especially given he wasn't even pumping aura into his legs to really speed up. He would ignore the occasionally twig that got in his way and lashed at his person, leaving a few shallow cuts on his cheeks and in his clothes. Eventually though, he broke through the treeline and came upon a more open area of the forest, a nice change of pace. However, the situation he found himself in certainly wasn't a nice change of pace.

Standing right in front of him were two people, wearing very dirty clothing that didn't fit with modern standards, there cleanliness wasn't up to modern standards either, Ash would honestly prefer to shove his nose in a bucket of rotten eggs than stay in the presence of these two. Both of them were male but the most important thing though was what they were holding, weapons. The one on the right was wielding an axe that could really do with a polishing while the one on the left had a sword, which was surprisingly well maintained unlike the rusty blade of his compatriot. Worst of all, the both of them were looking right at him

"Um hello gents! I'm just a little lost at the moment, care to give me some directions to the nearest village, town, city…" Ash asked politely with a forced smile, doing his best not to gag at the smell of the duo who likely never had a bath in weeks. Maybe the duo weren't bad guys, not right to judge someone by the clothes they wear and their… robust musk. They could be decent folks and willing to offer him the directions he needs to move forward! One can have hopes afterall.

"Matthew, who the hell is this little shit? He one of those noble brats the boss wanted us to off if we saw?" The one with the axe said with an eager tone that was quite off putting to Ash, the man gripping his axe with both hands just waiting for confirmation to swing it.

"I don't know. He doesn't wear a uniform like the others, I don't even know what he's wearing, never seen no noble or peasant wear anything like it." The sword wielding bandit noted, seeing the details in the new arrivals clothing style unlike his simple minded counterpart, seems he was the brain of the duo. "However it doesn't matter, I say we kill him anyway. The boss got us covering the flanks while he went with everyone else to kill the other three brats, my sword hand is twitching and my blade is too clean for my liking." Though it seemed they did share a mutual desire to spill blood, specifically Ash's blood at the moment.

"Wait! We can ta-!" Ash sputtered out in response to their statements, terror evident in his eyes at what they just said. But he couldn't even finish, ducking a horizontal swing aimed at his neck, obviously intent at decapitating the young man with one swing. However he didn't have any respite from that near death experience, forced to roll away to the right to avoid the axe aimed at his ducked form which only found dirt and not flesh to dig into. _These guys are serious! Their really trying to kill me! _The teen though stunned, admittedly he dodged death a number of times in his short life of a trainer, but at least those times he got in the way of evil group of the week. These guys were just bloodthirsty killers with no reason to kill him!

"He's an athletic one! Dodging my swing than your axe, boy got reflexes that's for sure." Matthew said mildly impressed with the reaction time, he was quite speedy with the blade but the boy got away. "Sadly your talent gonna end here, boy!" He shouted, charging at the teen while his axe wielding counterpart followed, though at a slower pace and flanking his quicker companion. The obvious intent was to pincer him between the two bandits.

_Dealing with both of them will be a pain, I best immobilize one and take the other out._ Ash thought to himself, his years of being a trainer giving much experience in tactic and could easily tell what the two of them were going to do. Ash wasn't going to have any of it, he was hungry, he was annoyed by the circumstances he found himself in, and alone without any friends. He was going to unleash his frustration on these two murderous idiots!

Standing his ground, he held out a hand and pointed it towards the slower moving axe wielder, deeming him the easier target between the two to hit. In the palm of Ash's hand he began pumping aura into it and from there outwards, using his concentration to give it shape and to sustain it, creating a glowing blue ball roughly the size of a soccer ball. The action caused the two men to falter slightly in their charge, a tinge of fear in their eyes at the strange orb, obviously not familiar with an aura sphere. Too bad, their brief moment of hesitation made the axe wielder an easier target. Suddenly, the ball of aura launched forward at incredible speeds, reaching its intended target in a second.

The moment the ball made contact, it exploded with great force and sent the man flying back five meters into the air before crashing onto the ground with an audible thud, his weapon landing a few feet to his side due to the explosion. The man simply laid there and did not stir in the slightest, though shallow breathing did indicate that he was alive, mostly due to the fact that Ash didn't intend to kill the man to begin with.

The remaining bandit looked at his downed comrade in anger and fear, what the heck did that brat fire at his friend?! The boss' crew had a few mages in its ranks, though they were mostly flunkies from them fancy magic schools that could cast one or two spells at best but he felt like that ain't magic. He felt the power of that blast even though there was a pretty good distance between them, never felt that from a fireball or blizzard spell. "**Your gonna pay for what you did to Charles, you shit!!!**" The man shouted in rage, he didn't care what the kid did, he was gonna cut his damn head off! With renewed vigor, he quickly got within sword reach of him and swung his blade vertically at him, fully intent on bisecting him in two.

Ash sidestepped the swing from the enraged man and attempted to form another aura sphere but the man didn't allow it, throwing out another swing aimed at the young man's chest quickly which Ash backpedaled away from. _I can't make an aura sphere with him on me! _The teen though has he continued to form aura spheres but being interrupted by the man's relentless swings and thrusts, it was annoying! However it wasn't completely true, he could form one quickly and just let it rip without much concentration, the issue with that however was he couldn't fully control how much power he put into that sphere, he could outright kill him if he wasn't careful. Despite the man's obvious intent to kill him, Ash couldn't bring himself to kill him in return, he just wasn't wired that way to just end a life especially since the Guardians are meant to protect the balance of the planet's very life and all life on it.

Eventually, the dance of swings and dodges landed Ash's back to a tree on the forest's edge, leaving him nowhere to backpedal to now and limiting his maneuverability, a fact that his opponent was aware of. The man in his hate fuelled mindset thrusted his sword straight for Ash's chest, fully intending to gore and pin the young man to the tree. Unfortunately for him, Ash slid just enough to the side of the tree for the blade to tear into wood and not his flesh, the blade now stuck in the poor tree and creating an opening. One which Ash fully intended to exploit.

Clenching his right fist tightly, concentrating a decent amount of aura that strengthened his muscles and fortify the bones so they wouldn't snap at what he was going to do. Throwing an aura enhanced fist straight into the man's gut, the blow connected with ease due to the surprise of the man getting his sword stuck. The man's eyes bulged at the force and some blood spilled out of his lips, the man let go of the struck sword and fell back onto the floor, joining his companion in the land of the unconscious. Leaving Ash the winner of this skirmish, though at least the two men would still have their lives, a mercy most in this world wouldn't have let them keep.

Ash would take in deep breaths to calm himself after everything calmed down, he needed to take a little break and analyze the situation now. "They said there were others and they were looking to kill some people, they were just some rear guard." The teen recalled what the sword wielding maniac Matthew had said earlier, seems these two were just smaller cogs in a much larger operation. Now the real question was what he should do about it.

Whatever was going on around here wasn't his personal problem, he had so many other issues he needed to deal with that adding more onto that would be a headache. But… it wasn't right to let these murderous jerks to just murder a bunch of people when he could do something about it, he wouldn't sleep well knowing people died when he could have helped. "It's decided than." Ash reaffirmed to himself, he was going to help whoever was endanger at the moment.

Ash grabbed the sword's hilt and using aura enhanced strength pulled it out with one swift movement, holding up the blade to his face and inspecting it. "I'm certainly taking this with me, and the axe." He told himself, stabbing the sword into the ground and kneeling down beside the knocked out Matthew, removing the sword's scabbard from the man's belt and connecting it to his own. With the scabbard now attached to his belt, right next to where his pokeballs would be, he'd sheath is newly acquired sword into it. With the blade secured, he walked over to the axe and held it in his hands, getting a feel for the more top heavy weapon.

Admittedly, Ash didn't really know how to use a sword and axe at all but it was better to be with him than these two when they woke up and escaped since he had no way to secure them. The best thing to do was to deprive them of their weapons. At least the weapons gave him some reach that he'll likely need in case he ran into better fighters amongst the bandits than these two, he'd rather avoid getting into a sword fight with just his fists, even if those fists were enhanced with aura.

With the weapons now having a new master, Ash would head head deeper into the clearing to look for evidence of where these other bandits were. Only after a few minutes of walking that he discovered several footprints heading in one direction southwards, it was hard to tell how many there were due to some running behind others but he gave a rough estimate of a dozen bandits give or take. "That's a lot of armed thugs, I better move." The teen thought to himself, running in the same direction of the footprints, enhancing his legs with aura to give him a bit more speed. He couldn't waste any time!

He would make great headway with his aura enhanced speed and finally came upon a sight of battle, just in front of a village. _Well seems I found what I was looking for originally… that's a win I guess._ Ash thought to himself, he was originally looking for some kind of settlement and now he has, he just wished under better circumstances. Before throwing himself into the melee, the teen walked up a hill and surveyed the battlefield from the vantage point, he needed to know the situation and where he was most likely needed to help out.

It seemed the bandits were engaged by some unknown force, though it seemed a light brown haired man on a horse was leading the opposing forces, ordering them into positions to outmaneuver the more disorderly bandits. However another group caught his eye. At the very front of the fighting was a group of four people, all looking noticeably younger than the grizzled men under the command of the man on the horse.

Their were four in total, two men and two women, each wielding a different weapon. The blonde man wielded a spear with expertise, easily deflecting an axe swing with his weapon and than running through the attacker in nearly one flawless movement, clearly he knew what he was doing. The other male had darker skin and favoured the bow, notching arrows into his bow and firing them in quick succession, each one hitting a target though not all his hits killed, those who did survive were easy pickings for the remaining three though. Next was a silver haired woman -a rare color- which was easily dispatching bandits with powerful swings from her axe, needing only one swing to easily maim her lightly armored adversaries.

The last member really caught his interest though, the blue haired woman seemed the eldest amongst them, if her height was anything to go by. Unlike the others she used everything to secure victory, a blocked swing with her sword was followed up by a punch to the gut of the enemy and then dispatched her off balance opponent with a second swing. He could barely make out facial features from here but the woman looked extremely stone faced compared to the others, cutting down enemies without blinking an eye or even the slightest hint of remorse, just moving to the next target and eliminating them. It was quite unnerving to Ash if he was being honest, he didn't want to get in that woman's sightline if he could help it.

Despite how capable the group was, the bandits kept coming from the north of the clearing and to the west of them, encircling them and separating them from the rest of their allies. If nothing was done then they'll get overrun or someone might get a lucky hit in. Something Ash wasn't going to allow.

Knowing where he needed to be, Ash charged down from the hill and headed towards a small group of three bandits headed towards the group from their right flank while another five occupied them with an attack from the front. Pretty clever actually. Sadly they didn't spot the teenager behind their flanking maneuver on a hill, an error they'll soon regret.

With an axe in one hand, Ash would use his spare hand to charge a non-lethal aura sphere while he closed the distance on the unaware thugs. When he felt close enough, he released the sphere towards the back of the bandit to his right, while pumping aura into his legs for increased speed towards while he charged to one on the left. Grasping the axe with both hands, he swung the blunt side of the axe head towards the thug just when the aura sphere made contact with his comrade. A mighty explosion rocked the man's back and sent him flying forward before landing roughly near his targets feet, with both the explosion and his arrival getting the attention of them. The other bandit didn't fare much better, receiving a powerful blow to the head before he could register what happened to his friend, his head snapping to the side before he collapsed right after. Within quick succession, two of the bandits now laid unconscious.

The third bandit also noticed what happened to his comrades and quickly changed objectives from the students and mercenary to the new arrival. Turning his back to the group, he gripped his lance tightly and rushes at the boy fully intent on running him through, but was stopped when felt a sharp pain in his back, forcing him to his knees. His head snapped back and notice an arrow embedded into his back, blood gushing from the latest injury sustained. He would look behind him to see the yellow wearing boy from earlier with a grin, though he was pointing at something… in front of him? Snapping his head back forward, all he saw was foot slam into the side of his head before not seeing any more.

Ash took in a deep breath of relief has the man collapsed to his side knocked out, wasting so much aura without proper rest or a meal really ebbed away at his supply. He looked towards the man who assisted him, only getting a respectful nod for his own assistance before focusing on his own fight. The raven haired teen would return the nod before discarding the axe he was using, he felt the weapon was a bit too heavy and preferred something a bit more well rounded. Drawing his brand new sword from its scabbard, he would leap over the downed bandit and would join the group who were still fighting the group that attacked there front.

One bandit slipped past the melee fighters and rushed towards Claude to split his head open, however his strike was blocked by the mystery teen that was now equipped with a sword. "Duck!" The heir to the Leicester Alliance ordered, needing him to give the bowman a clear line of sight, not wanting to leave the chance of shooting him in the back. The raven haired teen would kick the axe wielder back a few feet before immediately ducking, Claude letting loose an arrow that flew over the teen's crouched form and found a home in the enemy's skull, killing him instantly. "Well he actually did what I said, if only half my housemates could do that." Claude jested while his new ally stood up, he swore that they all had their excuses to not follow his orders. To be fair to Hilda, she actually did follow orders, she just complained when he gave it and complained afterwards at 'using a delicate maiden for such acts'. Her words not his.

Ash might have commented back to the teen but his focus was on the dead man in front of him, blood pouring out of the new hole in his head. The sight made his guts turn and he honestly wanted to vomit right about now, only the knowledge he was needed in the moment stopping him from unloading what remained of his dinner. He wasn't unfamiliar with death but he never dealt it out himself, he never had the desire or the reason to end another life and he'd rather go without taking another life. Sadly, such an innocent mindset will not stand the test in this new land he found himself in.

"Seems like you know what your doing so why not?" Ash simply said, prying his brown eyes from the body and giving the man an uneasy smile. He seemed friendly enough, though a bit too quick to kill someone in his own bias opinion. Sadly this was not the time for introduction and a friendly chat, they were still in a fight. "I'm gonna join in the melee with the others, hopefully another one won't slip by us." He informed the teen before rushing into the fight in front of him, leaving him to continue to use his marksmanship skills without worrying about another threat to worry about.

Joining the blonde teen and the two women on the front lines, he noticed the blonde was dealing with two swordsmen at once, he seemed to be holding his ground against them but the two men have forced him on the defensive without giving time to launch an attack. The sweat dripping down his face was an obvious indicator that he was beginning to tire, which seemed like the intent of the duo to make him more sluggish and an easier target. That wouldn't do at all!

Ash would launch another aura sphere at the ground near the feet of one of them, the inevitable explosion caused by the contact sending onto the floor with mild scratches with his weapon knocked out of his hand and would get up quickly. Or he would, if the blonde didn't drive his spear into the chest of the downed man's chest, likely puncturing a lung which killed the man. The raven haired teen look horrified at what he did, but wouldn't say anything at the moment, the man was helpless and killing him seemed needless. The fact he impart caused it by knocking him onto the floor sickened him, but he swallowed his bile for now and just pressed on.

The other man looked shocked at how things suddenly turned against them and held out his sword in obvious fear, his fingers shaking like crazy has his eyes shifted between his two enemies, a reverse of what happened earlier. Luckily, Ash would knock him out of his misery by charging and ducking over a sloppy swing thrown out by the bandit, before thrusting the pummel of his sword straight at his face, hitting the man's nose. The blow would knock him out and his body would fall limp onto the floor, blood running down his now broken nose though at least he was alive.

"I must thank you, stranger. Your aid is greatly appreciated." A voice asked from behind Ash, the teen looking behind to see the armor wearing teen, the blonde giving him a respectful bow from the unexpected ally. "What did you do earlier, with that energy you formed…" The blonde asked sounding confused but intrigued by what he did, it seemed to have confused him. Not unexpected, aura wasn't an unheard of concept by humans of the world but a human using it certainly was unheard of, aura guardians were few in number in recent years and mostly live in hidden villages. Heck, more people are born telepathic than has aura guardians, if the number of physic gyms are anything to go by!

"I think questions and answers should be left for when are lives aren't at risk." Ash said simply to the blonde, he'd rather not explain how complicated aura was to this stranger. Outside of the Aura Guardians themselves, only a handful of people knew he was one, he didn't even know he was one until the tree of life incident. Even then, it took two years to get a basic grasp on how it functioned and what it generally could do.

"Of course, the situation at hand is most important. It seemed the enemy ranks have thinned considerably." Dimitri noted, the battle seemed to die down quite a bit since he joined and the bodies were piling up. He despised this bloodshed but it couldn't be helped, these men seemed targeting them specifically to kill them, still the loss of life seemed so pointless. It seemed the newcomer seemed to share his aversion to killing, the one he took down still lived with only facial damage to show for it. It was oddly… reassuring to meet someone willing to fight but be against killing. Still his abilities certainly are odd, it was likely some form of crest but he never seen one that allowed the creations of such projectiles. Such interesting people he was meeting today…

Before Ash could reply to his statement, from the bushes in front of them rushed out a man that could give even Bruno of the elite four a run for his muscles. To bad he was quite ugly looking with noticeable rotting and even outright missing teeth while he clenched his teeth in anger, veins throbbing on his forehead. He definitely didn't seem pleased at all what had occurred. "**You pieces of trash! I'm gonna kill you all for this!!!**" He bellowed in rage has he rushed towards the silver haired girl, axe raised high into the air has rushed towards her with obvious lethal intent and rabid rage. Not helped by the fact the girl put down her axe onto the floor, probably believing the battle was won and they retreated somewhere.

Ash knew he had only a short window of time before the girl could get hurt or even outright killed by the giant. Drawing whatever little reserves he could muster, he coursed it through his entire body causing a cloak of aura to surround him like blue fire. He didn't have time to form and throw out an aura sphere, each long stride of the bandit's legs getting him closer to the girl by the millisecond has the girl drew a dagger as her only means of defense. He would charge forward towards the man with both hands on his sword, leaving behind the blonde and tanned boys in the dust has he ran, closing the gap between him and the grim scenario playing out in milliseconds.

However, to his shock, while the brute swung his axe with reckless abandonment the blue haired woman fighting alongside her got in the way of the girl with her back turned. _She's intending to take the blow for her?!?!_ Ash thought shocked, that strike would easily rip through her flesh and tear into important organs. He misjudged this stone faced woman, she seemed like a good person and not some emotionless killer. He couldn't let her die!

Coming from behind the duo, he would swing the sword low to meet blow the bandit threw out aimed towards the woman's side. The sword would strike just under the axe head of the weapon, striking the hard wood of the long handle. It seemed that time stopped at that moment, Ash could only feel his heart beat in his chest has he watched the blade dig into the wood, uncertainty plaguing his mind. Would this be enough to stop this woman's death? Or would it be swatted aside and the woman would die because of him? He was exhausted and his aura was running on fumes, it was really possible that he just didn't have the strength to save her…

However the fear of failure would not come. The wood would snap under the pressure of the clash, the axe head flying off to behind Ash, the piece of metal nearly finding a place in Claude's head if he didn't side step at the last second, instead it would lodge itself into a nearby tree. The bandit would look down dumbfounded at his neutered weapon, before yelling from his remaining crew about 'The Knights are coming!' caused him to regain his wits and run off in the opposite direction of the group, tossing away his twig onto the ground while he fled with his remaining underlings.

"It's finally over… worst night of my life…" Ash moaned out, his cloak of aura dissipating like mist, almost like coals after finally going cold. He just felt awful on every front, physically, mentally, and emotionally drained. He's never seen so much blood in his life since today, around him littered maybe a dozen dead bodies like it was a horror film. He just wanted to fall into a deep sleep for the next five years after today…

"Are you kids alright?! Who are these two?" A man wearing heavy white armor and his brown hair combed back asked then running, about a dozen other soldiers running after the bandits with a variety in hands. These must be the 'knights' that bandits were shouting about just before running away with their tails between their legs.

It would be Edelgard who would step forward. "We are fine, Alois. Mostly due to the efforts of these two individuals, if they hadn't been here along with those other mercenaries we would most likely have been injured, or worse killed by those bandits." She admitted honestly, she respected how capable they were and their assistance avoided tragedy this day. She hadn't been planning this when she hired… well meeting these two were a silver lining in an otherwise failure of a situation.

Alois opened his mouth to speak his thanks to the two individuals but than a man rode up to the group and dismounting his horse. The knight would look at him like he knew him somehow before a big dumb grin appeared on his face, though the man on the otherhand seemed outright annoyed seeing him. "Captain Jeralt! Your alive! Oh, I haven't seen you in ages, I thought you… well no matter, I'm so happy I could hug you!" The man said joyfully, it seemed the two knew each other from somewhere.

"Don't, Alois. I'm just here checking up on my daughter after she ran off with these three… four?" Jeralt said confused by the fifth member in this group, he didn't recognize him from the village and his clothes weren't anything he's seen before. However what surprised him was the boy dropped his sword and collapsing forward onto the grass. "Hey kid! You alright?!" The man asked, everyone else present running up to the downed boy with concern.

They would receive the sounds of snoring in reply, Ash's eyes were closed shut and a faint trail of drool pouring out of the side of his mouth. The teen was dead tired and so collapsed from sheer exhaustion, he was gonna have a hunger that could make a Snorlax green with envy when he finally woke up.

"Seems he's fallen asleep… let's take him back to Remire village inn to rest." Byleth finally spoke, nearly startling everyone at her finally speaking for once, though her voice was her usual monotone. "What? He saved my life, it's the least we can do." She suggested, slowly walking up to the exhausted boy and placing him on her shoulders while she held his legs to keep him steady.

"She's right, it's been a long night. We best get some rest before the sun rises." Jeralt agreed with his daughter, they've barely gotten any rest today due to this whole bandit issue.

"But wait! You need to come back to the monastery!" Alois exclaimed excitedly, he was hopeful that his former mentor would return to Garreg Mach and rejoin the Knights of Seiros. They could fight evil together like the good old days!

Jeralt sighed at what Alois said, he knew he couldn't run away from the church at this point since he knew he was alive. Nearly two decades of hiding and carefully covering their tracks so they couldn't be found by them, when Rhea wanted something she'll get it. "I know better than to run from the Knights of Seiros, once we sort this mystery boy out we'll ride back with you to Garreg Mach. Goodnight Alois." The former captain said with finality, not leaving any room for debate at all with Alois nodding in agreement. The group would split up, Alois and the students would head back to camp while the father daughter headed back to Remire village with Ash.

"Your very lucky! He saved you at the last moment from that bandit when you recklessly charged in to protect one girl." A voice inside Byleth's head chastised, catching the poor woman off guard and nearly causing her to trip. "Does my voice frighten you so? That's quite rude you know. How can such a supposedly hardened mercenary be so weak hearted." The voice teased playfully, enjoying the moment but soon took a more serious note. "You should thank him when he awakens for me, it's because of him that I didn't need to intervene to save your life and by extension mine for your foolish action. But that energy of his he used… it feels familiar but different… like a warped memory…" she hummed quietly before the voice faded entirely from Byleth's mind.

The mercenary shook her head, she must be going crazy, hearing voices in her head. Right now, she needed to get some rest and so did the boy on her shoulders. It seems tomorrow will be an interesting day.

**-Chapter Ends-**

**I hope you've enjoyed this chapter, I must admit action and fighting moments are the most terrifying for me to write, I always feel unsure if I wrote a good fight or not. Anyway, next chapter will be Ash going to Garreg Mach and where's he going to meet the other students. Which house will he choose? Who can he trust and befriend? Will he eat the kitchen's entire food supply in a month? Find out in the next chapter.**


	3. Getting Lay of the Land

**WELP! I'm considerably late with my latest chapter. I was just busy with work and just lost motivation to write for awhile, I'm sorry again hopefully I'll be more consistent.**

**Now to answer a few questions by the commentors. One asked how aura works, the closest comparison to my mind would be aura a watered down version of key from the dragon ball franchise. Pumping aura into certain body parts allows him to strike harder and move quicker, though obviously not to insane levels like dodging bullets. He could create aura sphere has a potent ranged attack, sense other peoples aura from a distance, and with enough mastery of it, telepathy, though Ash isn't at this level. That's the baseline of how aura works but it's also a its a finite resource, meaning he can run out of it during battle, like he did at the end of the last battle.**

**Fire Emblem belongs to Intelligent systems and Pokémon belongs to Gamefreak. I own and profit nothing from this!**

**-Chapter Starts-**

Ash twisted and turned in his sleep, beads of sweat dripping down his face has his mind was assaulted by images of things he couldn't understand.

The clash of metal echoed in the air of the ruined city, rubble falling off the collapsing buildings has boulders rained down from the sky. Dead bodies littered the streets, soldiers and civilians, men and women, the young and the elderly. No matter the age, sex, race, or creed were spared from brutal fighting that found it's way into the city.

Two mysterious figures clashed blades in the deepest section of the city, the courtyard of the city's castle that was the seat of power of the rulers. One of the unknown figures was male, wielding a spear that looked like it was made of bone and pulsed like it was it a living being. The other was a female wearing bright red and gold armor, using a very familiar sword with a blade that had a wave like design. Ash couldn't make out the faces of the two individuals, like a mass of shadows swarmed around the faces of these two people, hiding their identities of them. The two warriors would continue the exchange of blows for several seconds, until the male figure deflected a swing from the woman that created an opening to ram the bottom end of his weapon into her gut, knocking the wind out of her and forcing her back a few feet.

"Stop this! Don't you realize that your just a pawn to them?! A tool to be used and discarded, they care not for your dream!" The male voice shouted to the woman, the voice sounded familiar to the teen but distorted by something. The voice sounded pleading, not wanting to continue this battle any further and instead wanted her to see reason.

"You are correct… but I'm merely using them for my own ends, they'll pay for their crimes against me and all those they sacrificed to create me! Their kind will have no future!" The female shouted back, regaining her posture and holding out her blade towards the male in a threatening. "Help me… reforge this world into a better place. Where one's fate isn't dictated by birth or by those with power! If you won't stand with me… than die." The woman told the Male figure, her grip on her sword tightening has she readied for their next clash.

"I believe in such a world and I've lived in it… but this is not the way to do it. They've corrupted your dreams, it's now a rotten seed that I won't allow to become a tree of decay in this world! You may think your the one in control but they are masters of lies and half truths!" The man yelled back, his own grip tightening on his respective weapon. "I wish… things could have been different between us, that we could have walked a better road together…" he solemnly said before running forward towards the woman swing his spear at her, his intent clearly evident.

"Gah!" Ash shouted, eyes shooting open quickly while he stood up at attention, his eyes scanning the surroundings to know where he was. It was just a dream… but it felt real… the raven haired teen thought to himself, running a hand down his face to clean off the sweat that accumulated on his face. The smell of blood and smoke still pricked at his nose, the sound of metal clashing still rang in his ears has if he stood beside those mysterious figures while their weapons clashed. He would close his eyes and take a few deep breaths to ease his mind, it was probably just a bad dream because of what happened yesterday. Nothing more.

Taking a few minutes to compose himself, he opened his eyes and looked around, this was obviously not the woods he collapsed in which was his last memory. He was currently in bed in a relatively small rooms, only basic furniture like a singular chair and drawer which had an oil lamp resting on it. The room was certainly bare bones. Next to the bed was his sword which was inside it's scabbard and his jacket rested on the chair, pulling back the sheets of the bed he was in revealed he was still in his clothes minus the jacket and shoes. "Well at least nobody stole from me while I slept." Ash said to himself with a smile, it seemed the people who brought him here weren't thieves at the very least.

Feeling safe for the moment, Ash would remove the bed sheets off him and get off the bed, doing a few stretches to get any kinks in his body out of the way. He'd notice his shoes right beside his feet at the foot of the bed, he'd slip them on easily before reaching out to grab his weapon. But before he could, the smell of freshly made food would slither its way into his room and catch the attention of his nose. Soon, his stomach let out a mighty growl while the teen wrapped his hands over his stomach, just now realizing how starved he was. He needed something in his gut asap!

Quickly attaching the scabbard to his belt just in case, he stormed out of the bedroom and made a beeline to the source of the smell, ignoring the mercenaries around him in a hallway, dodging them with seemingly practiced ease. Running down a flight of stairs, he would arrive at the first floor which was mostly a large open area with a bar and several tables with chairs, a number of men already sitting around and chatting. Scanning the room with the eyes of Pidgeot and the nose of a growlithe, his eyes would find their target at a table near the far end of the room.

A wooden plate containing two pieces of cooked fish, some pieces of sliced bread, some grapes, and some form of pottage, look like beans to him. Ash would stride over to the table, his eager hands twitching when he arrived and he was near drooling at the thought of eating this meal. However, he was knocked out of food starved mental state by someone speaking to him.

"Seems you're finally awake… and very hungry by that look in your eyes." A gruff voice said to him, causing Ash's eyes to dart up from the food and to the man's face. He recognized the man who lead the troops by the orange clothes, however up close and personal with the man he could tell details like his hair design and the several scars itched on his face. Seemed he got into plenty of fights in his life, and many close calls if the scars on his face are anything to go by.

Ash chuckled embarrassed at the man's comment, will he was certainly right about both statements! "I am! It's nice to meet you, sir!" The teen said politely with a smile, finally noticing that the man wasn't sitting alone but with someone else. "Your the woman from last night! Your okay, right?" He asked the blue haired woman, the plate he was eyeing before sitting very close to her, most likely meaning it was hers. Thankfully the old guy spoke up when he did, he might have actually started eating her food.

"I am… thanks to you." Byleth said simply with a nod of her head, a tiny gesture of thanks for his actions last night. He saved her from certain death by jumping in when he did, though she shouldn't have been in that situation if it wasn't for her foolish actions. At least things worked out in the end for all parties. "Take a seat, eat." She told him, sliding her plate to the seat beside her for him to take, it was obvious he was hungry and he needed the food more at the moment. When he gave her a look of uncertainty at the meal she clearly bought, she offered the tiniest upturn of her lips into a smile. "Or I'll just eat it…" she teased, stretching out her hand to grab the plate once more.

"No!" Ash shouted in dismay at her action, swiftly taking a seat beside her and grabbing a wooden spoon that rest on the plate, filling it with some of the pottage and shoving it down his throat. Chewing quickly, he would hum in delight when the mushy beans reached his gut. It wasn't particularly tasty, lacking any form of seasoning, but it was filling and hearty. "I needed this so much!" He said being to stuff his face with the food with gusto, using so much aura the other night left his body begging for a ton nutrients to resupply his lost reserves. Aura was life energy essentially, it needed to be replenished the same way you gave your body its energy for the day.

Jeralt chuckled at the speed the teen ate, he was stuffing his face quicker than his own daughter did, she could pack own food when she wanted to. "Glad your enjoying yourself. I hope you aren't against some conversation while you eat… we have a number of questions that need answers to." The former knight captain asked with a serious tone, wanting to know the stranger in their midst and see if he was a threat. The boy saved his daughter from possible death and he greatly appreciated it, but from what his daughter told him about what he could do the other night revealed to him that he wasn't some normal peasant. They had to account for the unknown and this boy was certainly one.

"Sure no problem! But can I get something to drink and more food soon while we talk?" Ash asked hopefully, already finishing the pottage in less than a minute and stabbing a piece of fish with a fork before shuffling the whole piece into his mouth, chewing and swallowing the whole thing in fifteen seconds. It was good and he could taste a hint of butter, obviously what it was cooked in while in a pan.

Jeralt chuckled at the request, it seemed fair enough to him. "Sure, Kid. What would you like? Beer, ale, or wine?" The mercenary asked raising his hand, gesturing a nearby barmaid to come over and take their order, getting a nod and smile while she quickly took the order of a group of his men.

Ash was eating the second piece of fish when the man asked that question, the shock of being asked what alcoholic drink he would want causing him to slightly choke on it. The teen would beat his chest slightly with a fist until the fish went down and he could breathe properly once more, he wasn't expecting that selection of beverages. "You have anything… non-alcoholic?" The teen asked, despite his age he never actually drank anything of the sort before in his life, his mother would kill him if she found out he drank. Okay probably not, but she'd give him one of her deadly look of disappointment that made him feel dead inside.

"Yah, it's called water and your lucky Remire actually has a clean source of drinking water." Jeralt explained slightly confused by his reaction, drinking alcoholic drinks was the norm in the world and even kids drank it, of course watered down variants but still. Of course they drank water when clean water was available, but not every village had a source of it and when they don't ale and beer was drank the most. "Or you can get some watered down wine, you'll likely not get drunk off it any time soon." He reassured, the barmaid finally stopping in front of their table and raised an eyebrow what they were having.

"I'll have… some watered down wine I guess." Ash told the woman, he honestly wanted a little flavour in what he drank and maybe it will taste more like grape juice since it will be watered down.

"Make that for all three of us." Byleth spoke, ordering a jug for the whole group to use instead of just him. "I'll also like a second helping of my order." She requested, still not have eaten anything since her savior eaten her intended meal.

"How's my pheasant and rabbit with baked potatoes coming along?" Jeralt asked curious, his order taking longer than his daughter's order since he was doubling the amount of meat. Getting a reply of 'soon' from the woman, he left it at that.

"I'll have what he's having too." Ash added at the last second, eating what was left of his plate which was just brown bread. He didn't know what was on the menu so he just went off what the mercenary was getting. The woman would nod at their order before walking away from the group to get cook starting on their orders.

"With that out of the way, I think it's time for some questions." Jeralt said crossing his arms, the group had some time before drinks arrived and than food. "So what's your name Kid? I'm kinda getting a little sick called you just 'kid'." The man asked, starting off with a simple question.

"Ash. Ash Ketchum. And you two are?" The teen asked curious, he knew he was the one being questioned but it seemed only fair that he at least knew their names.

"Jeralt Eisner. Mercenary captain of these sods you see around us." The brown haired man introduced, gesturing his hand to the various armed men sitting in the room.

"I'm Byleth Eisner. Mercenary and yes, he is my father." She introduced with a nod of her at her father, making their familiar connection known to the teen.

Ash blinked and his eyes flickered between the two, not entirely believing the two were related. "Really? I don't see the similarities between you two." He pointed out curious, not really questioning their blood ties but merely stating that they didn't really look it.

"We get that often. She gets most of her looks from her mother, her attitude she inherited from me." Jeralt joked with a smile on his face, his eyes flickering to his daughter but the smile vanished when her face was the same hold stoic face she always had. It was honestly frustrating that, his own flesh and blood never smiled nor cried or showed any emotion outside of pain when she got hurt and even than only at the moment. "Sadly you can't see the similarities… she's not with us anymore." He told the teen, in case he wanted to meet his dear wife.

"Oh… I'm sorry to hear that. I actually was raised by my mom, my dad is off adventuring and sends money home but I haven't seen him since I was really young." Ash understood only having a single parent in one's life, it's been nearly a decade since he last met his father. It wasn't a bad life, he just wished he knew the man who helped brought him into this world and never attended his pokémon leagues. But like many things, he no longer questioned it and just moved on with his life.

"Sorry to hear that. But let's continue with the questions." Jeralt said, mildly surprised at how open the teen was with his past, seems things will be easier than expected. "Where are you from?"

"Pallet town, a small town on the southwest coast of the Kanto region." Ash responded with ease and a smile, being quite proud to be from that town. It wasn't large but quite famous due to professor Oak residing there, that man was like a second father to the boy.

"Pallet town? Kanto region?" Byleth asked in confusion, placing a hand under her chin while she thought about the names he threw out. She didn't recall anywhere with those names, though admittedly she was slightly forgetful of everywhere she went, a job was a job to her and details of where didn't much matter to her in the slightest. "Never heard of it. Father?" She shifted her attention to her father, he was more knowledgeable about these sorta things given he ran the group.

"I haven't heard of it either. Is it apart of the Adrestian Empire? The Holy Kingdom of Faerghus? The Leicester Alliance?" The aging mercenary questioned further, unlike his daughter he did pay attention to details on the jobs they did, ironic given the fact that he couldn't even remember how old he was. Though that was more lack of caring, so long has he can swing and thrust his lance than he wasn't old enough to worry about it.

Now it was Ash's turn to look confused by what they said. What were these places they were talking about? He had never heard of any Empire or a Holy Kingdom -made it sound like Arceus himself blessed the place- and the Pokémon league could be considered an alliance of nations, though the name Leicester didn't ring any bells. "What are you guys talking about? I've traveled the world several times over and I never heard of those places, are you pulling my leg or something?" The teen asked confused, just has their drinks and meals arrived for them, their respective plates placed in front of them with a jug of wine and three cups were placed in front of them.

Jeralt looked outright bewildered by that statement, this boy who claims to have traveled the world had never heard of the three powers of Fódlan? "Ash... have you heard of Fódlan before?" The man asked seriously, getting a shake of the head from the teen while he stuffed his face with potatoes and meat. "Kid… your gonna start from the beginning." He demanded softly, it was impossible for this boy to be so disconnected from the world to not know these places.

It would be a long half hour of talking between the three of them, though more Ash stating something and the other two questioning him, mostly Jeralt. Byleth seemed just content to listen to his stories. He explained to the duo his adventures, what pokémon were, and most importantly how he even got to this world. By the time he finished telling them, the jug of watered down wine was emptied and a new one had arrived, the table was stacked with nearly two dozen plates almost evenly split between Ash and Byleth. It seemed both of them shared a hearty appetite, much to the dismay of Jeralt's coin purse.

After everything was said and done, the aging mercenary leaned back in his chair and took a deep breath, rubbing his forehead in annoyance. After hearing all that the boy had to say, the kid was either completely insane and living in a fantasy world or he was telling the truth. The majority of the things he said seemed far fetched, a world where monsters and humans lived side by side and helped each other, living gods running around that held a delicate balance of not only the world but reality itself… to name a few of the absurd things he talked about.

Despite the sheer insanity of what he said, what he said in the end seemed to correlate with events that happened before. The pillar of blue light happened roughly when he supposedly arrived, the power he briefly demonstrated to the man seemed to share similar properties to it. Plus the details he had of his world seemed too well thought out and coherent to just be pure imagination, either this kid was a fantasy writer of the highest caliber or he actually lived through these events. He didn't really know which one was scarier, how would Fódlan society cope knowing about a world without crests and where monsters helped humanity reached peaks that they were barely in the process of understanding? It would probably tear itself apart in some capacity.

"Quite a story you got there, Ash…" Jeralt muttered to himself looking at the ceiling of the room, trying to think what was best to do in this situation. Not only did he still needs to figure out what to do with Ash but still had to meet up with Alois to head to Garreg Mach, meeting Rhea will be another headache. Thinking about the officer academy, the metaphorical torch lit up in his mind, maybe his one headache could solve the other. "Don't tell anyone about it, okay? Just say your from a remote village that had little contact with the outside world and this 'aura' of yours was a Crest ability you had but didn't know it was one." The mercenary told the teen, getting a confused blink from the boy.

"But why?" Ash asked confused by what the man was suggesting, he didn't see the reason why he should cover up his true nature from everybody.

Byleth would answer instead of her father. "I think your story and journeys are amazing but I think most would call you crazy if you told them. It's better if you just try to blend in." The female mercenary spoke, the woman indulged in his story so much that she only spoke just now, merely enjoying food and drink along with a fantastic story.

"Exactly. Also your coming with us to Garreg Mach." Jeralt told him, raising a hand to silence the teen at the obvious questions he was going to fire off. Most likely 'Why?' and 'what's that place?'. An accurate guess. "It's a monastery located at the center of Fódlan, it's also home to the officers academy which trains youths across the continent in the art of warfare. It's also home to an extensive library with countless volumes of books." He explained to the teen, Ash's eyes lighting up in curiosity about the location, seemingly eager to see it in person. "You want to head back home, right? But can't use the way you came." Jeralt theorized, he had no real reason to stick around here and was merely stuck here for now.

"That's right. I got dreams, ambitions, and family to head back to but I don't know where to start…" Ash admitted honestly, he didn't really have an actual 'plan' to get home per se. He was hoping to wander around for awhile and hopefully stumble upon or learn something that could help, not exactly a good strategy but he had few options at the moment.

Jeralt nodded his head in understanding, he never heard about structures like the one he described at the end of his tale, so he couldn't help him there. "Garreg Mach is the best place for you to head to for any information. Its vast library might hold some information on a lead for you and the Knights of Seiros are well traveled, they might have seen something connected to these ruins of yours." The mercenary pointed out, nothing went down in Fódlan without the church catching whiff of it first, there was very little they didn't know about.

Ash hummed in thought at the suggestion, the idea was pretty logical and made sense if it was all true. It was better than just roaming around and just hoping to find something. The teen smiled at the man and nodded, it seemed he finally had a course of action to take. "Sounds good to me! Thanks for the help, I appreciate all you've done for me so far." The teen thanked profusely with a small bow, despite them being complete strangers to each other the father and daughter duo have helped him out so much.

Jeralt smiled at the teen. "Don't mention it, you saved my daughter and that's a great debt I owe you. Helping you out and the food is the least I can do for what you've done for me." The mercenary told him, he owed the boy a lot yesterday for jumping in when he did, saving not only his daughter but the heirs to the three powers of Fódlan certainly earned him something. "Anyway, since you've stuffed your face and emptied my coin purse heavily, we gotta pack up before meeting up with the Knight of Seiros and then head to Garreg Mach. We'll meet you outside the village palisade." He told the teen, getting up from his seat and downing his cup of wine in one good swig before leaving the bottom floor and heading upstairs, obviously to pack his belongings.

Byleth would get up herself but offered Ash a faint smile. "I hope you have more stories to share, I'd like listening to them later whenever we have the time." She suggested, finding his story very fascinating and intriguing to listen to, hopefully he had more to offer her.

Ash returned the smile, though his was much broader and toothy compared to her own. "Definitely!" He reassured, he'd love to talk about his travels and friends to her, though it might be a little painful since he won't be seeing them for awhile. Byleth would disappear upstairs after that promise, leaving the teen the only one on the bottom floor has all the other mercenaries went to pack up as well. Since he only had what he was carrying, he would leave the inn and explore the quaint village before heading outside its palisade walls.

**-Few miles from Garreg Mach-**

When the mercenary group finally gathered up their supplies, the entire group marched north towards the supposed camp of the Knights of Seiros. The walk was relatively uneventful, though Ash had to hold in his bile when they passed the battlefield of last night, the bodies not in one piece after the scavengers came about and took their meals from the fallen during the night. He merely closer his eyes until eventually the smell of death and rot finally faded, not even caring he tripped a few times and Byleth had to catch before he fell, much to his embarrassment.

Eventually though, they came across a small camp that consisted of only two dozen knights, Alois, and the three students from yesterday. "That's all of them? I thought you had an entire classes of students on an excursion?" Jeralt asked confused, noting the very tiny presence of the group compared to the alleged size. Though he noted there seemed to have been much activity here before, several tracks of both men and beast were apparent in the dirt plus other signs of a hasty departure.

"We did, but I thought it best we send them back to Garreg Mach early just in case the bandits were still active in the area. So far everything seems fine, we swept the path to the monastery before sending them out." Alois told his former mentor, explaining why the group waiting for them was significantly smaller than originally told.

"Uh, good to see you actually using your head Alois. I thought it was just filled with jokes only you found funny." Jeralt both complemented and insulted in his former charge, he still remembered the man has his reckless squire who threw himself at the enemy axe swinging than making a bad joke afterwards when he somehow survived. "But why are these three still around?" He questioned, noting the heads of each respective house were still here and not with their house.

Instead of Alois answering, Dimitri would step forward. "I believed that we didn't properly thanked you for your efforts the other night, given what happened." The blonde explained, well at least his reasoning for why he remained behind. "I, Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd, thank you for saving us in an hour most dire." The teen would give Jeralt, Ash, and Byleth a respectable bow for their aid.

Ash chuckled awkwardly at his formality, he was never one for it and avoided it like the plague, he just wanted to talk to people like they were people. "It was nothing Dimitri! I didn't do it for thanks, you folks were in trouble and it was only right I helped. Plus don't be formal with me, I ain't one for it. Just call me Ash Ketchum, or just Ash for short." The teen reassured the blonde, things would get really awkward if he kept up this whole formal thing with him.

Before Dimitri could respond to that, Claude jumped into the conversation. "Now that's something I can agree with, you can just call me Claude." The teen introduced walking up to Ash and wrapping an arm around his shoulder, like they were good friends already. "Sorry about the princeling he's stiff as the spear he fights with. Most Faerghus types are always going on about chivalry, never know how to just enjoy life." He joked with a chuckle, getting annoyed glare from the crown prince at his comment on his preference for proper etiquette. "Anyway enough about him, let's talk about you. What was the blue flames you surround yourself with before running with the speed of a Almaryn warhorse? Also you snapped an axe with one swing at it and seem you ain't afraid to use whatever you have to fight, throwing in kicks in your swordplay. Fast, strong, and resourceful, your certainly a dangerous person." He told the fellow teen with a wink, he certainly was a wild card in the dangerous game that was Fódlan political game.

Ash felt unease about the boy, on the surface it seemed he was friendly and easy going, just being curious about his ability. But he felt like there was more below the surface of the yellow wearing teen, like he was analyzing him for his strengths and weaknesses, learning how he ticked to dismantle him if the two ever came to conflict. Maybe he was overthinking things but he didn't fully trust the guy to spill his beans, maybe he'll be proven wrong. But for now… the teen would duck underneath Claude's arm and back away a little bit. "Me dangerous? I wouldn't hurt a fly unless forced too, Haha." The raven haired teen let out a laugh, shrugging away his internal concerns and kept up his regular facade like nothing happened.

"Honestly Claude... No tac at all, will you be tying him to a tree and demanding him he reveal everything about himself next?" Edelgard stepped forward with a huffed at his actions, she too was curious about his abilities he displayed but she wouldn't be so blatant with it to a stranger. He was too free spirited for his own good, merely saying what he wanted when wanted. She envied that on occasion, though not now.

"If I was I wouldn't tie him to a tree, I'd tie him upside down by the feet on a branch. Heard the blood rushes to the head quickly and really messes with your mental faculties." Claude joked, though none laughed and Ash even took a few more steps back to Byleth who softly glared at the teen. "Hehe… okay not my finest joke. But I'm just curious about his abilities, your imperial highness can't say she's not?" The future leader of the alliance deflected.

"I am, obviously. But it's rude to ignore our other savior from the attack, which you still haven't even asked the name of." Edelgard shot back at her opposing house leader, the two locking eyes for a brief moment before Claude merely looked away casually. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Ash. I'm Edelgard Von Hresvelg, I appreciate your aid from last night and I wish to learn more about you in the future. You as well Miss…" she began to thank but remembered the woman hadn't given her name, though she barely spoke at all honestly.

"Byleth." The blue haired woman said simply, not sugarcoating her introduction in the slightest. She preferred to keep things brief and to the point, get and give only what is necessary to complete the job. Though honestly she just wasn't good at small talk and casual interactions with others, her father dealt with most of the talking and she merely stayed in the background until the fighting started, only speaking with her father and those conversations were hardly casual. "Your welcome. Glad that your safe." She told her, giving her a respectful nod of the head.

"If all your pleasantries and thanks are done, we're heading out now. We should be at Garreg Mach in a few hours." Jeralt announced to the group, the knights packed and ready to head out themselves. With no more preparations needed, the group of students, knights, mercenaries, and one trainer headed off towards the monastery.

The group would follow down a dirt path towards their destination, walking for hours through the dense forest. The group would divide into three, the knights and Jeralt headed up the front and seemed to be doing some reminiscing about the past while others seemed to be gushing about the ex-captain. The mercenaries formed the rear of the group, talking and boasting about one thing or another. In the middle of these two groups were Ash, Byleth, and the three heirs.

"So your all royalty and the heirs? That's amazing!" Ash said amazed at their stations, he had meet royalty before on his journey but not of three different nations at the same time.

"Well technically the alliance doesn't have a monarch." Claude clarified to the fellow teen, he was heir to house Riegan but unlike his fellow heirs he wouldn't be inheriting the alliance and won't have the other houses of the alliance just swear fealty to him when he ascended.

"Though the position of leader of the alliance has always been passed down to the next in line of your house, it is similar to a monarchy. It's just the other great houses have much greater say in the affairs of the state." Edelgard pointed out, recalling her history lessons about the Leicester Alliance, she never recalled a single leader of the alliance that wasn't a member of house Reigan.

"Fair point." Claude conceded on that point, not as democratic has some thoughts, or maybe the house just produced great leaders. Like yours truly. "And you never heard about any of the realms of Fódlan, or even about crests?" The heir to the alliance pointed out to Ash, recalling that the boy supposedly came from a very isolated village with little knowledge of the world. It was hard to digest for the scheming lord.

"Yup! I didn't even know the powers I had were called a Crest! It was just something I could do and I merely accepted, why care about the details?" Ash said with a casual wave of the hand, though on the inside he was sweating bullets. He told them the fake backstory Jeralt and Byleth taught him, using his own origin and just modifying to create a somewhat believable reason to explain his ignorance on the world. He wasn't fond of lying and really wasn't good at it, though so far he was less telling lies and telling half-truths.

"So why are you out here than?" Edelgard asked curiously, it seemed odd he would abandon his familiar life and just seemingly stumble upon a battle than help in it.

"Looking for my dad, he went missing like a decade ago and I wanted to see if I could find him. Plus wandering around the world seemed more interesting than just tilling fields all day." Ash said casually responded, most of what he said was actually true in a sense, though he never really tried looking for his father ever. He became a trainer to both see the world and become the greatest trainer that ever was and ever will be, fighting the best along the way. Though honestly he wanted improvement and he couldn't be a better trainer, and more importantly a better person, if he just stayed in Pallet town.

"You have my condolences, not having a parent in your life could be quite detrimental to a child. You never had a mother yourself, correct Byleth?" Dimitri asked the woman, causing her to look up at the boy. He didn't want to drag her into a conversation about not having parents but he wanted to bring the woman into the conversation, she seemed to just remain silent.

"That's right. My mother died at birth, that's what my father says at least." She explained, not really having anyway to confirm or deny what her father had told her about her mother and simply went with it. "You fought well Ash, last night. Did you train?" She asked curiously the boy, he seemed to hold himself well in battle but her keen eye for battle saw that he was somewhat sloppy and inexperienced with a blade, relying on incredible speed and strength to compensate for lack of skill. Though he seemed apt at using whatever he can to secure victory, including his other limbs.

Ash chuckled softly at that question, scratching his cheek in embarrassment at the line of questioning. "Not really, though I did train somewhat in martial arts, never with a weapon though. I sorta compensated my lack of experience with my sword with my crest." The teen explained, it wasn't exactly a needed skill back on his world, a sword or even a gun seemed sorta pointless when you have pokémon who spew flames that melt steel in seconds or shoot pressurized jets of water capable of crushing boulders.

"Seems all you need is a crest to be a passable fighter it seems." Claude said jokingly, though he knew crests gave people edges in certain fields like Lorenz's crest granting him more powerful magic and heard the crest of Fraldarius made them stronger physically than normal humans, not to mention the difference between a minor or major crest holder. "Though I'd hate to fight you if you got some actual training, you'd be more of a brute than our dear prince Dimitri here. Poor training dummies don't last two sessions with him, neither do the training weapons." The Riegan heir said, slightly teasing the incredibly strong blonde, though taking a few cautious steps to the side in case he wanted to display his strength.

Insteading of the blonde defending himself venomously at the teasing, the teen just sighed with an embarrassed blush. "It is not my intention to break the equipment, it seems restraining myself is a talent I have yet to master…" Dimitri admitted in embarrassment, despite only being in the academy for about a week he already broken seven training dummies, three training swords, and a dozen training spears. Much to the annoyance of everyone. "But I agree with Claude, with proper training you could be a formidable knight. Too bad the academy year is already started and being a commoner I doubt you could pay the fees needed for entry. I'd welcome you openly into the blue lion house if it was all possible." The blonde said with a smile, feeling the boy would be a great knight in the kingdom when he graduated. Plus an excellent training partner for himself.

"And they say I come on strong, already asking him to join Faerghus when you barely know him?" Claude chastised the prince, though admittedly having someone with that potential on your side is quite advantageous. "Straightforward as ever Dimitri. Though I don't think blue would look good on him and you Faerghus types can be a bit stiff, I think yellow suits him best." The teen asked with a smile and a wink towards Ash, who simply looked between the two males who were obviously trying to recruit him.

"Honestly you two? Fighting over a recruit?" Edelgard asked in disbelief at the two heirs, swarming the boy like vultures over a carcass. "Though I admit, I'd like to learn more about you. The black eagles are in need of more physical fighters this year." She said with a smile, her class was particularly ranged heavy and so having him would offset their weaknesses. Plus, with him being in the same house she could better evaluate him and understand his character. Maybe he could…

Ash chuckled at them which caught them off guard, he honestly wasn't expecting to be the center of attention. "You guys flatter me! But like you guys said I can't really join this academy anyway, though I'm planning to hang around the monastery if I can. I'd love to get to know you guys more and I'm always wanting to make new friends." He told them honestly, getting nods of understanding from his fellow teens at his logic. "Anyway, I'm not the only amazing person here. Byleth is a great fighter, way more skilled than all of us combined. Maybe you can teach me sometime?" He asked turning his head to the woman, catching her off guard with her eyes going wide for a moment.

"Me? Teach you? I've never thought about teaching anyone…" she mumbled to herself, crossing her arms just under chest while she thought about it. She had no real experience training anyone but herself, outside of organizing some of the mercenaries training but her dad was the one usually handling that, she was more of an assistant.

"Just try is all I'm asking. Even if your not a great teacher, I'll still have a great time training with you." Ash reassured the woman, he knew how uncertain it was passing on your knowledge to another person, worried about teaching them the wrong things. However nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Byleth smiled softly at his words, it was odd to her getting encouragement from someone else, her father didn't really do it because she excelled in what he taught. "I'll try my best… for you." She replied back, spending more time with this odd boy didn't seem like a bad way to pass the time.

Ash opened his mouth to speak but was cut off when they finally broke out of the forest and into open plains, his attention now focus forward and his breath was taken away. Several yards away from them was a large town. Or was it more a fortress? But it also had a massive cathedral on the very top of a large hill that the town sat on with mountains flanking it on nearly all sides but one, which had formidable walls, one outer wall protecting the lower levels of the town and an inner wall protecting the large cathedral. The place certainly looked imposing and nearly unbreachable by the means available to these medieval people.

"That's Garreg Mach?! You sure it's a monastery or a fortress?!" Ash gushed at the sight, he should totally get a picture of the place but he didn't want to reveal the piece of advance technology to his new friends. He was certainly gonna try to get a picture though when he could. "It's a really pretty sight too." He added, small waterfalls pouring out of crevices in the mountains and trees clinging onto the mountains gave the place a certain peaceful look to it.

"It sure is though a word of advice, looks can be deceiving." Claude warned the raven haired teen, though he didn't explain why and simply marched on leaving a confused Ash in his wake.

The rest of the walk was in relevant silence, small talk here and there but it was far more casual than what they spoke of earlier. In an hour they would pass the outer gates with minimal effort and into the streets of the town, the smell of food and sweets causing Ash's stomach to stir and the sound of children playing could be heard. It was oddly comforting to the boy, despite being in a completely different world some things were still the same. After a brief ten minute walk, they would reach the gate of the second wall which had much greater security than the first one they passed, though the sight of Alois and Jeralt seemed enough for them to raise the gate.

Ash would look up at the massive structure laying just beyond, a cathedral so large that it dwarved every other structure around, he never seen anything like it. His world wasn't too big on religion has a whole, sure everyone believed in Arceus and worshipped legendary pokémon that was strongly connected to their home regions but there was no centralized religious body or organized priesthood to his knowledge. So whoever built this place must have had great wealth and influence, he would turn his head to question Jeralt about the structure but noticed his and Byleth's attention was focused upwards and not in front.

Following their line of sight, his eyes came upon on a woman with green hair and matching eyes, wearing robes of white and cloak of royal blue and gold thread with flowers in her hair and a gold headpiece that was borderline a crown. She was quite pretty, he felt an odd otherworldly presence about her but her stance held authority. "That's Rhea, she's the archbishop of the Church of Seiros, meaning she's in charge." He heard Jeralt say, so she's the one who controlled the religion of Fódlan he's heard about. The woman's focus seemed purely on Byleth who stared back unflinchingly, but before his focus turned elsewhere he noticed her eyes turned to his. Brown meet green for the briefest moment, an odd look of familiarity itched itself on her face before she offered a smile and turned away, heading into the structure before disappearing into the building.

"She seems… nice?" Ash said awkwardly, it looked like the woman recognized him but he couldn't say the same back, if he ever meet her he doubted he'd forget that appearance.

"She appears that way at least…" Jeralt mumbled under his breath, Ash barely able to catch his words despite their close proximity. "I'm guessing we must go meet her immediately?" The grizzled mercenary asked his former squire, getting a simple nod of the head in confirmation, he should have figured. "Lead the way than, see ya later Ash." He told the teen, taking a few steps ahead towards the large structure.

"Actually… Rhea wishes to see him as well." Alois responded to his farewell to the teen, causing Jeralt to stop mid-stride.

"She what? Why?" The mercenary asked honestly confused, how would she even know about the kid since he just appeared in this world? Unless...

"Oh I sent her a report about what happened, the kids gave me plenty of details on him and his abilities during the battle and wrote about them in it." Alois confirmed Jeralt's suspicion that he had sent a report ahead of time before their arrival, meaning she was aware of his abilities.

"Fine. Let's go you two." Jeralt said coolly, hundreds of thoughts running through his head at what she will do when they finally do meet.

Alois guided the small group of three through the gilded halls of the structure, the house leaders are going their own ways for now. Ash was amazed by the sheer amount of wealth on display around him, fine arts and statues of gold encrusted with a rainbow of precious gems. This church certainly flaunted it's wealth around for all to see it seemed, he expected more modesty from a group like this. Eventually they came across a large hard oak door, which Alois opened with little difficulty revealing an audience chamber with the green haired archbishop standing inside, a darker green haired man standing near her but kept a respectable distance from her.

"It's good to see you Jeralt," Rhea welcomed her former captain, he and his companions walking into the room. "It's been quite some time since we last saw each other, it seems you've gained a few more scars since I last saw you." She teased, noting some additional scarring on his face but on the inside she was relieved he was alive, she lost so much when the fire happened…

"Mercenary work isn't the safest work your Holiness. It is to be expected." Jeralt said simply crossing his arms, giving her a slight cold shoulder but giving her the respect her position deserved. It was certainly not how two supposedly old friends would interact.

"Such coldness… You wound me Jeralt. I was hoping we could reconnect and reminisce about yesteryears." Rhea said with a sad smile, the coldness of his tone hurt her but it was to be expected somewhat, he did go into hiding to avoid her after all. Her attention turned away from the man to the only other female in the hall. "Who is this? Your daughter? Seems fatherhood has been blessed on you Jeralt, I hope the joy of parenthood have soften your heart over the years. What is your name?" The archbishop pointed out noticing the young woman in the room, inquiring her identity.

"My name is Byleth." The mercenary said simply, her eyes drifting slightly away from the woman and more focused on the art around her, the young woman always had slight eye for such pieces.

"What a wonderful name." Rhea said with a smile, not at all displeased by the slight lack of overt respect given out. "I heard you performed excellently when coming to aid our precious students, Alois report had them praising you heavily." She praised with a respected nod, glad the students returned unharmed after such an unexpected turn of events, though they certainly needed a punishment for separating themselves from the group. Her attention finally landed on the youngest person in the room. "They also spoke quite heavily about you as well young man. They said you had a unique ability. May I ask your name and demonstration of it." She asked kindly with a smile, having a motherly aura about her.

Ash returned the smile heartily, not having the tension filled past with her or a lacking ability to emote like his companions, taking her kindness at face value. "I'm Ash Ketchum, it's a pleasure to meet you Archbishop! And sure, I see no reason why not!" He told her, never liking to keep secrets from others and didn't really see the need to hide his aura abilities. Holding up a hand, small ball of aura manifested in his hand, almost like blue flame being held out but no heat was produced. The sphere grew until it was roughly the size of a basketball, the flame becoming more controlled and condensed into a tight ball of pure life energy. At his will, the orb dissipated into wisps of blue smoke before even that remnants of its existed vanished.

The reaction to the room varied at the sight. Jeralt and Alois were the most dumbstruck by the sight, neither of the two ever seeing such a thing before in their lives, only hearing about it from others which didn't do it justice. Byleth merely raised a curious brow at the orb, knowing about his ability first hand but not knowing of this particular manifestation of it. The church officials in the room however had the most controlled but surprising reactions to it. Seteth's eyes widen slightly in surprise and in recognition but quickly returned to his more serious demeanor, so others didn't see his reaction. Rhea's smile grew slightly wider, recognizing the ability and seemingly pleased by what she saw.

"My, such a unique and wonderful ability you have. The goddess truly has blessed you with it." Rhea said politely before turning her attention to Jeralt, her smile fading slightly. It was time to talk serious. "I think you know what I'm gonna ask you, Jeralt." She told him.

"You want me to rejoin the Knights of Seiros?" The aging mercenary asked rhetorically, already knowing what she wanted out of him since first meeting Alois, knowing he had no escape from her reach at that point. "I don't have much other choice, guess I'll have to say goodbye to my daughter and troops than." He said somberly, hoping at least he could send them away from here and hopefully out of her reach.

"Such goodbyes won't be necessary, it would be too cruel to separate family. A position has actually opened up just recently in the officers academy." Rhea explained, catching off the mercenary at what she was implying. "One of our teachers has been recently had his position revoked, so we are currently in need of one to fill in the position before the school year starts proper." She explained the situation and the not so subtle proposition.

Alois laughed out loud at her words. "By recently she meant yesterday, the professor ran away when the bandits attacked the students. Ran right past me quicker than a pegasus for a carrot! We couldn't in good faith put him in charge of one of our houses after such a display, we'd fire him personally right here but he never came back after he ran off." The man explained why the spot was opened, much to the annoyance of Seteth who was the one who hired the former professor.

"Yes. We are currently understaffed and a quick replacement is necessary or one of our houses will suffer unjustly. I'm sure has second in command to Jeralt, one of the finest knights to ever grace Fódlan, I'm sure you'll be more than capable of leading these youths to prosperous futures." Rhea told her with a warm smile, she held no doubts that this young woman would perform well nurturing the students that she will teach. She had faith in that.

Byleth was taken aback by the offer, for once this was a decision that she had to make on her own. Admittedly, if her father was rejoining the knights than being a professor would keep them somewhat close, but was she really up to the task? She did help organize training for her fathers men with her father and lead them into battle when he was needed elsewhere, so she had some experience. "I'll accept the offer." She said somewhat reluctantly, she still didn't truly believe herself fit for the role but between that or complete separation from her father, the choice was obvious.

"Seems you'll be teaching others after all! What are the chances?!" Ash said excitedly, the odds of her getting a teaching job after what they spoke of on the way here, though it did disappointed him that she'd be too busy training her actual students than himself. "Anyway, it's been a pleasure meeting all of you. But I gotta use your library to look up some stuff, so I'll be excusing myself." The teen told them, turning around and walking away from the group, believing that Rhea only invited him to thank him. He had much to look up, with only symbols from the ruins to start his search from he'll likely be spending quite a bit of time in there. Much to his dread.

But before he could get past the gilded gates, Rhea's voice caught his attention. "Unfortunately I cannot allow that." She said with surprising authority, like a mother telling her child when he was about to do something wrong. "The library is meant for the use by the church, staff of the academy, and its students. We cannot allow anyone to browse such a precious resource like that at anyone's leisure. I'm sorry." She explained to him, only catching Byleth by surprise at the strict regulation on who or couldn't be allowed into the library.

Ash turned to look at her with obvious annoyance in his eyes, who wouldn't be given his current situation? The quicker he found a way home meant the quicker he could go back on his journey to become a Pokémon master, more importantly see his pokémon and friends. Taking a deep breath, he looked her straight in the eyes. "Their must be a way I can get into that library, it's important." He told the archbishop with conviction, he'd rather get access directly from her. Getting caught sneaking in there to read was hardly a good use of his time, especially since it would likely cost him a valuable resource for his mission.

Rhea smiled at his determination. "Yes there is. I'd like you to enroll into the academy has a student." She told him, that response caught everyone in the room off guard, including Seteth who was essentially her right hand man. "Ash… you are brimming with potential that deserves to be nurtured properly. I know you have personal desires that conflict with my request, however patience is a virtue and I doubt your stay here will be brief. The academy would not only offer you growth and knowledge but food and shelter so long as you remain a student, few are given this opportunity." She told him truthfully, she seemed quite genuine with her desires in seeing him grow and nurtured. "However if you refuse, you will lose out on that opportunity and the library. Please consider carefully."

Ash hummed at the offer, mauling it over it in his head. _She seems adamant on him joining the academy, though I certainly dislike the fact she's essentially holding the library hostage to push me into it…_ The teen thought, he didn't like getting strong armed into accepting the offer. However, her words did have merit in a number of areas, he didn't know if he'll find the information he needed quickly from the library and any he did find could just send him elsewhere, he might be stuck here longer than he'd like. Plus he lacks essentially everything here, no pokémon or money put him in a rough spot to get food or a place to stay, though he doubted the people of Fódlan would accept paper money or digital currency even if he brought some over.

"I'll accept." Ash told her with a nod, this offer helped fixed much of his issues that he currently faced, staying near Byleth and Jeralt was a plus too since he actually knew them. "But what house will I be joining?" He asked her perking an eyebrow, he knew that the academy student body was divided into three houses by geographical homeland, which is sorta problem coming from a… different dimension or reality.

Rhea merely smiled at the question at accepting her offer, though why she was so invested of getting him enrolled was a mystery to everyone but her. "You will decide which house you will join tomorrow. Consider it your reward for your efforts of saving our dear students. You already know the leaders but it's best to learn about the other students to make a decision you'll be happy with." She told him, it went against the schools convention but it wasn't unheard of, students could transfer to a different house if they desired so. It just was a rare occasion.

Ash hummed slightly pleased at that, he wasn't being forced into a house and she was right that choosing his house just on their respective leader wasn't wise. They all seemed alright people in their own ways, so learning who else he was studying with would be best. "Thank you, Rhea." He said, the little wiggle room offered was appreciated, though the thought of going back to school still kinda sucked. He thought he was done with it.

"Your welcome. It's getting late, Seteth could you please show our new teacher and student to some spare rooms at the dorms? I'm sure your familiar with them." Rhea asked her second, the man looking ready to argue with the matter obviously wanting to discuss something but held his tongue.

"Of course, Lady Rhea. Please follow me you two." The dark green haired male told the two, gesturing for the two to follow him before walking out of the audience room not waiting for a response, expecting them to follow. The man wasn't too pleased at the moment due to the guests, but more the choices the Archbishop for them. The two will certainly be discussing things later on, though he trusted her judgement on most things he didn't comprehend her current decisions. Hopefully context will ease his nerves.

Ash and Byleth would look at each other for the briefest of moments before following behind him, the long day's march exhausting them and some rest would be good. Next Alois and Jeralt would leave the room, the former squire dragging the ex-captain out of the room to get a drink at his favourite tavern and to learn about his journeys over drinks. With them gone, this left Rhea alone in the audience chamber.

Rhea would look up to the stain glass mural above her depicting the goddess, at least how the people thought she looked, getting into a position of prayer while looking up at the lovely piece of glass work. "Mother… the blood of the most faithful has returned to us. May it's return be a sign that you'll return soon has well…" the woman prayed, hoping beyond hope that this was a sign from her mother despite how little progress she made to achieve her goal. But she will not rest until her mother walks beside her once more.

-**Chapter End-**

**What house will Ash choose? What does Rhea know about him? Find out next chapter, hopefully soon!**


End file.
